Photographer's Note

This is a panorama of Anakena Beach situated in the north of Easter Island.
The moai in this ahu (platform) are very well preserved because they stood fallen in the sand.
As we already learn, the moai were used to send back the "mana" (kind of spiritual energy) of a dead wise man to his tribe (through the eyes of the moai).
There was a lot of different tribe fighting for land and to show strength. One way to weaken the others tribes was to make their moai fall to prevent them from recovering "mana".
There was only a very few moai standing up at the re-discovery of the island.
All the moai you can see were standed up by explorers and archeologues.
The first was the one you can see the top behind the others ones.
Thor Heyendal (also known for the Kon tiki adventure) put it vertical by using the "small rocks" methods. With twelve men and ten days, he achieve to stand up the moai.

Great panoramic shot! I saw a moai in Val Paraiso, but never made it here unfortunately. You've got the exposure spot on, (not easy when photographing beach scenes). One improvement you could make is to straighten the horizon slightly.

Thanks a lot for posting. It has been a long time since I wanted to have a pan of the southernmost coconut beach of the world , 27° 04' S more precisely, except for Moreton Island, QU. I bet that you didn't know about it ...